From drivable bionic animals to machines made from muscle, biohybrid robots are on their way to a variety of uses.

Landmark approval of the first CRISPR therapy paves the way for treatments based on more efficient and more precise genome editors.

Suppressing errors is the central challenge for useful quantum computing1, requiring quantum error correction2,3,4,5,6 for large-scale processing. However, the overhead in the realization of error-corrected “logical” qubits, where information is encoded across many physical qubits for redundancy2,3,4, poses significant challenges to large-scale logical quantum computing. Here we report the realization

The western coast of Colombia can get more than 26 metres of rain a year, thanks to the influence of air jets hitting the Andes range.

Caleb Watney explains how the National Science Foundation’s ‘science of science’ programme will find efficiencies and support ‘high-risk, high-reward’ studies.

Combining electron spin resonance techniques with atomic force microscopy allows single spins to be manipulated for quantum computing and sensing applications.

Planet-altering climate ‘tipping points’ are looming — but positive behavioural and economic shifts could result in runaway benefits for the climate. Plus, scientists race to save ancient cave paintings and how the clumsy use of AI is fuelling the reproducibility crisis.

Researchers look ahead to the potential uses and benefits of a technology that has been more than 20 years in the making.

Evolutionarily conserved mechanisms link tumours to renal failure.

Updated gnomAD contains 76,156 whole genomes from diverse ancestries.

One organ in a person’s body can age faster than the rest — with implications for health and mortality.

Silicon engineered to confine light on a nanoscale.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 120, Issue 49, December 2023.

Context Owing to the interaction between genotype and environment (G x E), identifying traits to increase wheat yield and grain protein concentration simultaneously or increasing one without affecting the other remains a challenge. Phenotypic plasticity is an insightful perspective to understand G x E. Objective To explore the relations of wheat yield and grain protein concentration in response to

Context or problem Despite its global significance as a highly nutritious food, the critical period for grain yield and grain protein determination of quinoa has not yet been identified. Objective or research question This study aimed to determine the critical period of grain number, yield, and grain protein of quinoa in contrasting environments of South America. Methods Five experiments were conducted

Context Long-term experiments are an important tool to investigate the effects of crop rotation and fertilization measures under climate change conditions. However, there are few studies on nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) of crops in long-term cropping systems in Europe, but no consolidate studies in Germany. Objective We analyzed a long-term experiment established in 1982 to observe the role of legumes

The widespread adoption of returning crop residue to regulate soil properties and improve yields has been well-established. However, the long-term effects of residue return on soil organic carbon (SOC) and yield in film-mulched farmland, especially under future climate conditions, are still unclear. To address this issue, we utilized the SPACSYS model, which was calibrated with 5-year (2016–2020) field

Strawberry (Fragaria x ananasa Duch.) is the most economically important soft fruit worldwide. While self- and wind-pollination is possible for strawberry, without biotic pollination (animal pollinators, including artificial pollination by humans) rate of strawberry flowers rarely exceeds 60% and thus fruit production is decreased. At a time of widely recognized decline of pollinators and increasing

Floral scent is an essential attribute for plant reproduction and ornamental plant industry. In Lagerstroemia genus, taxa with distinct fragrances are rare, thus limiting their economic value. Using headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) (HS-SPME-GC-MS), floral scent components of L. ‘Ning Xiang 3′ (a fragrant cultivar blooming with

Despite the fact that most of the studied activities of plant phenolic compounds rely on their antioxidant properties, few clues about their antiglycation activity are available. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the potential of phenolic compounds to suppress the formation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) in the leaf and root system of two Salvia subg. perovskia species

The effects of individually applied heat or drought stress on cotton’s pollen fertility, and consequently on yield formation, have been extensively studied. In contrast, the effects of their compound stress have received minimal attention. To address this, a pond experiment was conducted using a cotton cultivar, Yuzaomian 9110 and the treatments consisted of control (CK), drought stress (DS), elevated

The utilization of biomass resources as carbon precursors exhibits a promising application prospect for supercapacitor electrode material preparation. Here, we present mesoporous activated carbon from coconut fiber by H3PO4-assisted hydrothermal pretreatment combined with a low KOH-to-hydrochar ratio activation. The results show that the hydrothermal pretreatment increases the micropores of the activated

Unlike 1 G bioethanol, the success of 2 G technology faces difficulties. The economic difficulties of 2 G bioethanol can be solved with an additional income in by-products, mainly from lignin. The present study investigated the generation of phenolics via fast pyrolysis and alkaline hydrolysis using residues from saccharification and simultaneous fermentation (SSF) as substrate. The SSF residues were

Soil temperature at the land surface (Tsoil) is a key variable for modeling processes that occur belowground. Although Tsoil is correlated to the near-surface air temperature (Tair), these values are often not equal. Evidence confirms that Tsoil – Tair (ΔT) varies by ecosystem in both positive and negative directions. The goal of this study was to calibrate a semi-empirical model to predict Tsoil from

Water use efficiency (WUE) in terrestrial ecosystems is a crucial indicator of regional resource use efficiency and the water-carbon balance relationship. However, spatial variability casts uncertainties in evaluating the water-carbon coupling, leaving the spatial patterns and underlying driving mechanisms of WUE obscure. To address this issue, our study conducted a comprehensive analysis of China's

Two by two.

Polar ice, coral reefs and other Earth systems could cross irrevocable thresholds soon, but urgent action could stave off the worst effects.

Science is starting to recognize the movement to create mass-market products using local knowledge and materials to improve lives around the world.

Recently, several studies using cultures of human embryos together with single-cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq) analyses have revealed differences between humans and mice, necessitating the study of human embryos 1-8. Despite the importance of human embryology, ethical and legal restrictions have limited post-implantation stage studies. Thus, recent efforts have focused on developing in vitro self-organising

Determining structure and phenotypic context of molecules detected in untargeted metabolomics experiments remains challenging. Here, we present reverse metabolomics as a discovery strategy, where MS/MS spectra are acquired from newly synthesized compounds and searched for in public metabolomics data to uncover phenotypic associations. To demonstrate the concept, we broadly synthesized and explored

Letter to the Editor

Letter to the Editor

Computational model uses sea-surface temperatures to predict when whales and turtles are likely to get stuck in fishing gear.

Letter to the Editor

Electrodes placed inside the brains of five people with traumatic injuries improved their performance in attention and memory tests.

Snippets from Nature’s past.

Letter to the Editor

Scientists worry that ill-informed use of artificial intelligence is driving a deluge of unreliable or useless research.

Scientific institutions must create roles so that researchers can provide the deep public engagement necessary to respond effectively to the escalating impacts of climate change.

Companies must be transparent about how they calculate their emissions goals. Researchers must help to clear up doubts about the system.

After unveiling a quantum computer with 1,121 qubits, IBM will now focus on smaller, more error-resistant systems. Plus, male mosquitoes once sucked blood and ‘wobbly spacetime’ could reconcile physics’ most incompatible theories.

One year after ChatGPT’s release, researchers reflect on how the chatbot has affected their work. Plus, how it feels to have a robotic octopus arm and image generation has the biggest carbon footprint of all AI tasks.

Specialists share how to make the experience more enjoyable and foster a sense of belonging.